ICE agents mocked autistic woman for asking for wheelchair after dragging her out of car
A woman who was recently released from custody by immigration agents described the horrifying way she was treated during a stop last month - one she said exacerbated disabilities - and the terrible conditions inside the Minneapolis-area ICE facility.
Aliyah Rahman, an autistic South Minneapolis resident with a traumatic brain injury who needs a wheelchair for mobility, told lawmakers during a Congressional forum on Tuesday that she was stopped by ICE agents while on her way to a doctor's appointment. She said agents violently arrested her, including threatening multiple times to "break her f------ window" when she did not immediately comply out of shock, and slashing her seat belt with what appeared to be a hunting knife. She said they also dragged her by her arms, face down, from her car to an ICE vehicle, even while she was screaming at them about suffering from disabilities.
"I now cannot lift my arms normally," Rahman said. She claimed the agents never read her rights, and the Trump administration never charged her with a crime.
The conditions she witnessed inside the Minneapolis-area ICE facility were even more concerning, Rahman said. Outside of the center, she saw hordes of "black and brown bodies" being mushed along by screaming federal agents.
"I continued to hear the word bodies, because that is how agents referred to us," Rahman said.
"You have no reason to think you will make it out alive if you are already being called a body," she added.
She said the agents inside the facility taunted her for asking for a wheelchair, with one of them saying, "You were driving, right? So your legs do work."
She added that she was denied medical care, and before she passed out from her injuries, she heard a voice outside of her cell door saying they couldn't help because they "didn't want to step on ICE's toes." She said she was later treated for assault at the Hennepin County Medical Center.
Rahman shared her testimony at a time when Trump's immigration regime is facing significant scrutiny. Agents in Minneapolis killed two American citizens protesting ICE raids, and shot nearly a dozen more, according to reports. Their actions have renewed calls for several Trump administration officials to either resign or be fired.